1.Sherman County Lions! Today!

Flash alert from Lion Nell: Here is a reminder that the first Monday at noon is the scheduled day for Sherman County Lions to meet for their first meeting of the month. President Geremy says there are hold-ups on our project. Come and hear how things are going.

2. Smoke Inhalation Prevention

North Central Public Health District reminds residents to take precautions to avoid illness due to smoke inhalation. Smoke can hurt your eyes, irritate your respiratory system, and worsen chronic heart and lung diseases.

Poor air quality conditions are a health threat and all residents should limit their exposure to smoke. Those with respiratory or heart disease, the elderly, and children, are advised to stay indoors when the air-quality is poor.

Check the Air Quality Index found at the link below, it’s updated hourly and is color-coded for easy to read information. Unfortunately, the only permanent monitor for our region is in The Dalles, with Gov. Camp, Madras and Hermiston being the next closest monitors. A link is also provided below with information on the 5- 3-1 Visibility Index if there is not a monitor near you.

Please take the following precautions to avoid breathing problems or other symptoms from smoke:

Be aware of smoke concentrations in your area. See the link below for DEQ’s Air Quality Index.

Avoid outdoor exertion during such conditions. Avoid strenuous outdoor activity including sports practice, work and recreation.

Drink lots of water – staying hydrated can keep your airways moist which will help reduce symptoms of respiratory irritation such as scratchy throat, running nose and coughing.

Try to avoid driving in smoky areas. If you do need to drive in these areas, keep your windows rolled up and vents closed. If you need air conditioning, make sure you set your system on “re-circulate” to avoid bringing smoke into your car.

Avoid smoke by staying indoors, closing all windows and doors and use a filter in your heating/cooling system that removes very fine particulate matter.

People with concerns about health issues, including those suffering from asthma or other respiratory problems, should follow their breathing management plans; keep medications on hand, and contact healthcare providers if necessary.

Please see the Wildfire Smoke & Your Health FAQ and visit the helpful links below for additional information on how to protect yourself from smoke:

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention fact sheet about the health threats from wildfire smoke

OHA wildfires webpage

For more information, please contact North Central Public Health District at (541) 506-2600 or visit us on the web at http://www.ncphd.org.

3. Supreme Court of the United States: Clean Water Act Judgment

Clean Water Act: Judgment: Affirmed, 8-0, in an opinion by Chief Justice Roberts on May 31, 2016. Justice Kennedy filed a concurring opinion, in which Justices Thomas and Alito joined. Justice Kagan filed a concurring opinion. Justice Ginsburg filed an opinion concurring in part and concurring in the judgment. http://www.scotusblog.com/case-files/cases/united-states-army-corps-of-engineers-v-hawkes-co-inc/

Whoever willfully and unlawfully conceals, removes, mutilates, obliterates, or destroys, or attempts to do so, or, with intent to do so takes and carries away any record, proceeding, map, book, paper, document, or other thing, filed or deposited with any clerk or officer of any court of the United States, or in any public office, or with any judicial or public officer of the United States, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than three years, or both.

(b)

Whoever, having the custody of any such record, proceeding, map, book, document, paper, or other thing, willfully and unlawfully conceals, removes, mutilates, obliterates, falsifies, or destroys the same, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than three years, or both; and shall forfeit his office and be disqualified from holding any office under the United States. As used in this subsection, the term “office” does not include the office held by any person as a retired officer of the Armed Forces of the United States.

Public service announcements (PSA) are generally used to announce a special event for an organization. While the information provided in a public service announcement covers the same areas as would a press release–answers to the questions who, what, when, where and why–a PSA is typically much shorter in length than a media release.

Some things to keep in mind:

Thirty seconds is not very long, approximately 75 words. You’ll need to get to the point quickly.

You’re writing information that will be spoken, not read silently. There’s a BIG difference between the two. Ask a friend or two to read your PSA or radio news release aloud. Edit and adjust as needed.

The 10th Annual Great Salt Lick Contest/Auction/Benefit will be held September 17, 2016 at Crossroads Art Center, 2020 Auburn, Baker City OR. All auction proceeds, will go to OHSU Parkinson’s Center of Oregon. Over $1000 will be given out in prize money. This year besides best poem with block there will be a $100 purple cow poem.Last year about a fourth of the proceeds ($3000) went to a giant bronze salt lick sculpture that is dedicated to Parkinson’s awareness. It is Baker’s first public sculpture, and it sits now in downtown Baker on the new Court Street Plaza just off of Main. Thanks to those who contributed to the auction last year to help make this possible.

8. Commentary: The Arrow of History

By Charles Krauthammer

How do you distinguish a foreign policy “idealist” from a “realist,” an optimist from a pessimist? Ask one question: Do you believe in the arrow of history? Or to put it another way, do you think history is cyclical or directional? Are we condemned to do the same damn thing over and over, generation after generation—or is there hope for some enduring progress in the world order?

For realists, generally conservative, history is an endless cycle of clashing power politics. The same patterns repeat. Only the names and places change. The best we can do in our own time is to defend ourselves, managing instability and avoiding catastrophe. But expect nothing permanent, no essential alteration in the course of human affairs.

The idealists believe otherwise. They believe that the international system can eventually evolve out of its Hobbesian state of nature into something more humane and hopeful. What is usually overlooked is that this hopefulness for achieving a higher plane of global comity comes in two flavors—one liberal, one conservative.

The liberal variety (as practiced, for example, by the Bill Clinton administration) believes that the creation of a dense web of treaties, agreements, transnational institutions and international organizations (like the UN, NGOs, the World Trade Organization) can give substance to a cohesive community of nations that would in time ensure order and stability.

The conservative view (often called neoconservative and dominant in the George W. Bush years) is that the better way to ensure order and stability is not through international institutions, which are flimsy and generally powerless, but through the spread of democracy. Because in the end, democracies are inherently more inclined to live in peace.

Liberal internationalists count on globalization, neoconservatives on democratization to get us to the sunny uplands of international harmony. But what unites them is the belief that such uplands exist and are achievable. Both believe in the perfectibility if not of man, then of the international system. Both believe in the arrow of history.

For realists, this is a comforting delusion that gives high purpose to international exertions where none exists. Sovereign nations remain in incessant pursuit of power and self-interest. The pursuit can be carried out more or less wisely. But nothing fundamentally changes.

Barack Obama is a classic case study in foreign policy idealism. One of his favorite quotations is about the arrow of history: “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.” He has spent nearly eight years trying to advance that arc of justice. Hence his initial “apology tour,” that burst of confessional soul-searching abroad about America and its sins, from slavery to the loss of our moral compass after 9/11. Friday’s trip to Hiroshima completed the arc.

Unfortunately, with “justice” did not come peace. The policies that followed—appeasing Vladimir Putin, the Iranian mullahs, the butchers of Tiananmen Square and lately the Castros—have advanced neither justice nor peace. On the contrary. The consequent withdrawal of American power, that agent of injustice or at least arrogant overreach, has yielded nothing but geopolitical chaos and immense human suffering. (See Syria.)

But now an interesting twist. Two terms as president may not have disabused Obama of his arc-of-justice idealism (see above: Hiroshima visit), but they have forced upon him at least one policy of hard-headed, indeed hard-hearted, realism. On his recent Vietnam trip, Obama accepted the reality of an abusive dictatorship while announcing a warming of relations and the lifting of the U.S. arms embargo, thereby enlisting Vietnam as a full partner in the containment of China.

This follows the partial return of the U.S. military to the Philippines, another element of the containment strategy. The Trans-Pacific Partnership itself is less about economics than geopolitics, creating a Pacific Rim cordon around China.

There’s no idealism in containment. It is raw, soulless realpolitik. No moral arc. No uplifting historical arrow. In fact, it is the same damn thing all over again, a recapitulation of Truman’s containment of Russia in the late 1940s. Obama is doing the same, now with China.

He thus leaves a double legacy. His arc-of-justice aspirations, whatever their intention, leave behind tragic geopolitical and human wreckage. Yet this belated acquiescence to realpolitik, laying the foundations for a new containment, will be an essential asset in addressing this century’s coming central challenge, the rise of China.

I don’t know—no one knows—if history has an arrow. Which is why a dose of cold-hearted realism is always welcome. Especially from Obama.

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Charles Krauthammer, who has won the Pulitzer Prize for commentary, writes for the Washington Post.